'Moby-Dick' is recast with a woman at its center in 'Call Me Ishmaelle'

A new book by Minnesota author Louise Erdrich is always reason to celebrate. The acclaimed writer, already graced with a Pulitzer and a National Book Award, returns this month with a collection of short stories, taken from the past 20 years of her work. “Python’s Kiss” includes both previously published and brand new tales. Each is distinct. They include the aunt with four wedding dresses, a young girl who consoles a lovesick dog, immigrant farmers with a tenuous grip on sanity. There are also two speculative stories set in a corporately owned afterlife, stories that Erdrich says make more sense in today’s A.I. environment than they did when she wrote them. 'Python's Kiss' artwork Each chapter is accompanied by specially commissioned artwork by Erdrich’s daughter, Aza Erdrich Abe. Both women join Kerri Miller in the studio for this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, to talk about the writing, the collaboration and the surprises in “Python’s Kiss.” Guests:Louise Erdrich is the award-winning author of many novels as well as volumes of poetry, children’s books, and a memoir of early motherhood. She is also the owner of Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, a small independent bookstore. Her new book is “Python’s Kiss,” a collection of short stories.Aza Erdrich Abe is an artist who collaborated on illustrations for “Python’s Kiss.” She’s also been the cover artist for her mom since 2012. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

What does it mean to live richly, even radiantly, while facing the impending darkness of climate change? How do we stand in awe at the planet we see around us even as we doubt that humanity will intervene in time to save much of what we love about it? Terry Tempest Williams’ new book, “The Glorians,” wrestles with that unraveling — the pull of one strand could undo the pattern that weaves us all together. And yet, as host Kerri Miller says, this book is unexpectedly consoling too. William writes this from her home in the Utah desert: “I can bear witness with awe and gratitude, translating what I see and feel, and then share it as an offering of joy or bewilderment or love.”Williams joins Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about glorians — those small moments of awe that anchor our attention — and how to live wide open, holding nothing back, even in the face of despair.Guest: Terry Tempest Williams is an award-winning author of seventeen books of creative nonfiction, including the environmental classic, “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place.” She also teaches at Harvard School of Divinity. Her new book is, “The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary.” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

When it comes to megaliths — massive stones set in place by prehistoric people — Americans are probably most familiar with Stonehenge. But the U.K.’s landscape is punctuated with thousands of these majestic stones. Some are set in circles, others in rows. A few even form doorways that align with the sun at solstice. Long revered for their mythical presence, megaliths woo both curiosity seekers and die-hard enthusiasts. Fiona Robertson falls into that second camp. She was captivated by Britain’s ancient stones from an early age. When she met her husband, Stephen, a shared love of megaliths drew them together. And it was the megaliths who comforted her and gave her room to grieve when Stephen was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Robertson’s new book, “Stone Lands,” is part homage to the grandeur and mystery of megaliths and part memoir of a wrenching loss. This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Robertson shares her love and her consolation with Kerri Miller, as they verbally explore Britain’s megaliths together. Guest:Fiona Robertson is a writer and dedicated stone-seeker. Her new book is titled, “Stone Lands: A Journey of Darkness and Light through Britain’s Ancient Places.” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Daniyal Mueenuddin grew up in two vastly different worlds. As a child, he lived with his paternal relatives in Lahore, Pakistan. As a teenager, he spent summers on his maternal family’s farm in Elroy, Wis. A product of both of those worlds, Mueenuddin sees himself as a translator of sorts. He intimately knows both U.S. and Pakistani culture — particularly the more rural, faintly feudal villages in southern Pakistan, where he now farms. He knows the distinctives and the overlaps between East and West, between rich and poor, between scarcity and comfort. He’s channeled all of his knowledge into his new novel. Set largely in rural Pakistan, “This is Where the Serpent Lives” tells four interwoven stories that contrast the lives of servants desperate to escape their class, and the wealthy, Westernized elites who employ them. This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Kerri Miller talks with Mueenuddin about how his disparate childhood environments shaped his writing, what it’s like to constantly code-switch as he travels between his farm in Pakistan and his current home in Oslo, and why the class system survives the fading of Pakistani feudalism. Guest: Daniyel Mueenuddin’s first book, a collection of stories titled “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders” was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His new book — his first novel — is “This is Where the Serpent Lives.” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Rock climbing is risky. But so is life. And friendship. And following your dreams. Nothing is promised. Success is not assured. In Gabriel Tallent’s new novel, “Crux,” two 17-year-old best friends are facing down those fears as they climb self-described death rocks. Climbing is both their passion and their escape from futures that feel predestined. They both come from dysfunctional families. They both feel called to climbing and the vulnerability, grit and trust it demands. But risk doesn’t disappear once they get off the rocks.Tallent is, himself, a climber — but as he tells Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, “Crux” isn’t really a climbing book. Instead, it was a chance for him to explore friendship, vulnerability and the risk inherent in wanting more.Guest:Gabriel Tallent is the author of the New York Times-bestselling novel “My Absolute Darling.” His new novel is “Crux.” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

When Tracy K. Smith was named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2017, the country was in a fragile place. In her new book, Smith writes that, by then, “we’d come to find ourselves in a climate of language — I’d call it a national vocabulary — grounded in fear, derision, and the notion of an intractably divided nation.”But Smith believes that poetry rises above the grim jargon. In “Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times,” she describes poetry as a vehicle equipped to transport us beyond facts and figures to places where we may not even know we want or need to go. Smith joins Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to explore how poetry is uniquely positioned to transform our understanding of each other. Along the way, they trade favorite poems, talk about why it’s crucial that poetry be read out loud and discuss ways to make poetry more approachable — especially for those who only learned to diagram it in school. Guest: Tracy K. Smith is the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States and is the author of five poetry collections, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning “Life on Mars.” Her newest book is “Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times.” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Change is inevitable. But that doesn’t stop us from fearing it. We fear the uncertainty. We fear the pain. We fear who we might become. But cognitive scientist Maya Shankar says — while understandable — that’s the wrong posture. In her new book, “The Other Side of Change,” Shankar invites us to shift how we view life’s curve balls. What if curiosity was stronger than fear? What if we saw upheaval as an opportunity to reimagine ourselves? On this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, Shankar joins host Keri Miller to talk about how to harness brain science to build resiliency in the face of change and come out on the other side a kinder, stronger and more open-hearted person. Guest: Maya Shankar is a cognitive scientist and host of the podcast “A Slight Change of Plans.” Her new book is “The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans.”Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

It takes courage to reimagine a classic. Xiaolu Guo was drawn to Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick,” from the first time she read it in her native Chinese. The writing was lyrical — hard to translate — and the descriptions of sailing were dense. But the symbolism of the great white whale and the sea-faring captain obsessed with revenge captivated her. Her new novel is a retelling of this classic with a young girl at its center. Protagonist Ishmaelle goes to sea, disguised as a boy, in a desperate grasp for freedom. She wants to leave poverty, gender norms and religious traditions behind. When she ends up on a whaling ship, captained by a free Black man named Seneca, she meets a swash-buckling crew of people who broaden her world — and ours. Guo joins host Kerri Miller this week to talk about her reimagined “Moby-Dick” which probes gender, race, humanity’s connection to animals and the nature of belonging.Guest: Xiaolu Guo is the author of “Radical” and “Nine Continents.” Her new novel is “Call Me Ishmaelle.”Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

“You have a good life,” her aunt said. “You don’t want to ruin it with the past.”Those words were deeply unsettling to journalist Christine Kuehn. She always suspected there was more to her paternal family history. Her father was kind but evasive, and her aunt flat out refused to discuss it. But no one would talk. Then she got a letter from a screenwriter who asked if her family could be the same Kuehns who spied on Pearl Harbor for the Nazis and shared intel with the Japanese. When she confronted her father, he denied everything. But within an hour, he called back, sobbing, and confessed.So began Kuehn’s quest to uncover the truth. It took her and her husband Mark decades to sort through FBI files, letters, historical records and family journals — and even longer for her to absorb and process the fact that her grandparents and aunt were accomplished Nazi spies, largely responsible for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Her new book, “Family of Spies,” tells her family’s shocking history. Turns out, at age 19, Kuehn’s aunt Ruth had an affair with Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels. When he learned she was half Jewish, he sent the family to Hawaii — the better to preserve his purity — with a mandate that they spy on the Americans for the Japanese. Kuehn’s family obliged and changed the course of history. This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Kuehn talks with Kerri Miller about the shame of discovering her family’s history and what helped her move beyond it. Guest:Christine Kuehn is a journalist and writer who lives outside of Baltimore, Maryland. Her book is “Family of Spies.” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

When an aspiring novelist moves into an apartment above a famous author, the younger writer thinks it’s a sign that literary stardom is right around the corner.He’s partly right. But his luck is about to turn in ways he can’t expect.Matthew Pearl, himself an award-winning author, writes what he knows in his new novel, “The Award” — which is why the book swerves into some wildly dark places. He returns to Big Books and Bold Ideas this week to talk with Kerri Miller about the absurdity of the publishing industry today (without naming names, of course) and the inspiration behind “The Award.”